Bangladesh Art in Paris and Chatillon

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Bangladeshi art in Paris and Chātillon
Sadeq Khan
From 28th of this month, a travelling exhibition of Banglashi painters
(including a sculptor) will hold shows, successively, in two galleries in
France, in the cities of Paris and Chatillon. Twenty-two artists have found
place in the exhibition. In a sense, the works represent half a century of
contemporary pictorial creativity of this country. 1952 was the year when the
martyrdom in the course of the movement for the adoption of Bengali as a state
language shook the society. Blood of the young was spilt on the streets. From
that shock began the process of crystallisation of what may be termed, in the
language of modern political science, the pride of separate identity of the
latent national spirit of Bangladesh. In that sense, the last fifty years may
be said to be the years of fruition of national self-esteem in the common
psyche of Bangladesh.
Mohammad Kibria is the senior-most painter whose works have been accommodated
in this exhibition. He came to Dhaka in the early fifties after graduating from
Calcutta Art School. Around the same time, a number of young painters of
Bangladesh returned home after art-education in Europe. They created a stir
amongst the art-lovers in this country by semi-abstract and geometrically
modified compositions under the cubist influence by synthesis or analysis, as
the case may be, of objective forms and contours from multiple perspectives. At
first, Kibria used to make space-divisions in pictorial compositions in almost
the same manner. His pictures of that type or pictures of the other painters of
that period, some of whom are still active, have not been included in this
show.
In the first half of the sixties, Kibria went to Japan to study advanced
graphics, and was enamoured by the variety of moods communicated by the
interplay of colour and textures on the picture surface. Ever since he has
changed his style of work to create surface orchestra in paintings, examples of
which in oil are on show in this exhibition.
Painter Mahmudul Haque, who belongs to a generation of the next decade, has
also contributed to the exhibition with similar works. He has, however, alluded
in the title of his series to the simile of a natural phenomenon to depict the
mood of his pictures.
Indeed, in this exhibition it is the painters from the generations of the
seventies, eighties and nineties that dominate. Of them, only Shahdat Hossain,
who is resident in Paris, has been following the earlier trend of semi-abstract
geometric compositions. A mixed influence of the same trend is also visible in
the works of young painters Iftikher Uddin Ahmed and Ahmed Nazir. And then, of
course, in the metallic pictures of younger Mohammad Nazmul Quasem, it has been
a natural corollary of the medium to follow the grammar of geometry to
represent semi-abstract figures. In all their works, there are loaded contents
of extra-pictorial relevance.
In Ranjit Das, the apparent characteristic is that of multidimensional
geometric compartmentalisation of a picture story or narrative. Jamal Ahmed, on
the other hand, has gone back to the charm of figurative character study or
face study in scenes arranged or taken from life, obtaining the spontaniety of
textural effects in the use of acrylic. Kanak Champa Chakma has also presented
works in acrylic, depicting mundane pictures of tribal life. She has, however,
dwelt more on colourfulness than on tactile effects.
In acrylic, Farida Zaman has engaged in telling some picture stories somewhat
induced by her subconscious. Nazlee Laila Mansur has woven a similar type of
picture stories, but hers are metaphorically richer in social consciousness and
more choreographic in the fete of her Arranged Garden of Life.
The spark of veiled social criticism that we detect in Nazlee can be seen in
more fiery, more furious expressions amongst comparatively younger artists.
They sometimes vent their fury by ridicule, making a caricature of social
feelings, as Shishir Bhatyacharjee does. Some of them, like Mahbubur Rahman,
invent their own metaphor to pass judgement. Atia Islam Anne did the same in a
realistic manner. Some, like Ataur Rahrnan, simply cry out from the nagging
pain in their soul. Some again, like Mohammad Mustafa Shaheedul Islam, seek
escape from stark reality in an elusive search for earnest hope. Paris-based
Pradip in his Puja (Worship) series, on the other hand, seeks quiet retreat in
ritualistic wrap of colours around symbolic representation of his name.
Mahbubur Rahman, in making fun of artificial attitudes in the society,
combines flashes of robotic movement in token extension of time dimension. The
same characteristic is evident in the reverberation of organic movements in the
works of Paris-based reputed painter, Shahabuddin Ahmed. That reverberation
lends both life-force and emotion to his figurative objects, and fades out into
the void of the background picture-space, the same way as the memories of the
painter's experience in the Liberation War of 1971 are fading out in his mind.
Indeed, the pictorial imprint of organic movements were stored in the memories
of Shahabuddin from the experience of anger, aggression, retreat and fatal pain
of losses of life and limb.
Before we refer to the works of the remaining participants in the show, it is
necessary to return to history a little bit. In the forties, the pioneers of
contemporary art-movement in Bangladesh came to Dhaka from Calcutta, and in due
course got involved in the establishment of the Dhaka Art Institute. Although
they had their moorings in the proclivity of pictorial art that developed in
the nineteenth and twentieth century Greater Bengal culture under the British
rule, in the decade of the fifties the awakening of the sense of separate
Bangladeshi identity and national self-esteem made a profound impact on their
minds and thoughts. They now had the compulsion to encourage pictorial
expression or representation by a mixture of European technique of art with
inspiration and imagery from pristine traditions of either folk-art or courtly
Mughal art of the Middle Ages. That form of art activity was superseded by the
activities of the younger painters returned from Europe, when the latter
introduced a design discipline of semiabstract compositions more intimately
related to contemporary life or mindset. Yet a tendency was sustained in some
younger painters for indulging in expressionistic compositions oblivious of
design discipline, picking on forceful styles and symbols of folk art.
Paintings of that nature have not been included in this exhibition. But works
of similar nature, directly revivalist fake "punthi" or manuscript paintings by
Abdus Shakoor, are there in the show. Side by side, a series of "Faces" by
Abdus Satter in acrylic suggests behind their blurred outlines traces of
decorative bias of our old courtly tradition. Dhali Al-Mamoon, to acknowledge
the inspiration he derived from folk culture, has put some floating signs and
symbols atop his compositions, in the bodies of which he retained a separation
of hardness, if not entirely mechanical looks, that depart patently from both
our traditional folk and courtly propensities.
In the end, one may say that perhaps a few decades ago, a disinclination
towards figurative pictures prevailed in this country amongst the social elite
under the influence of the injunctions in Islam against idolatry. As a result,
amongst the very senior painters there was a tendency to find escape in
abstract decorative works or simply compositions rich in pure visual qualities.
Amongst younger painters, no such inhibition is there. Whether the appeal of
their picture story or their artistry is hard-hitting or mellow, they are
confident in their self-expression, and have no hesitation in baring their
souls.